Talk, Tunes by Critic and Artist

By

Allen Bush

February 4, 2009

Award-winning jazz writer Bob Blumenthal

Greg Osby is also teaching at Berklee.

Photo provided by the artist

Photo provided by the artist

Throughout the month of February, Berklee College of Music's Africana Studies/Music and Society initiative presents the Jazz as Culture, Language, Being, and Music series, a mix of concerts, lectures, and live interviews.

On February 12 at the Berklee Performance Center, Greg Osby—saxophonist, composer, producer, educator, and Berklee alumnus—and Grammy Award–winning journalist Bob Blumenthal offer a night of varied entertainment in Saying Sounds: The Bob Blumenthal Show. General admission is $5, $2 for seniors. Tickets are available at the Berklee box office. Call 617 747-2261 or visit berkleebpc.com.

Highlights will include Blumenthal and Osby interviewing each other about career, influences, and the artist/critic relationship. Osby will perform two sets with his band. Blumenthal will read from his upcoming book with musical illustrations. A list of the 10 jazz artists everyone should know and questions from the audience will bring the evening home.

Blumenthal is known worldwide as an authority on the history and personalities of jazz. He is a former Boston Globe columnist and has contributed to numerous publications for 40 years. Two Grammy Awards rest on his mantle, both for Best Album Notes on collections by Miles Davis and John Coltrane. His latest book is Jazz: An Introduction to the History and Legends Behind America's Music. Blumenthal is a creative consultant Marsalis Music.

Though best known for more than a dozen jazz-based CDs he's recorded for Blue Note, Osby is noted for deconstructing the genre, mixing in hip-hop and funk, writing nontraditional arrangements, and performing feverish club gigs. He has toured with the Dead and Phil Lesh and Friends.